Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1887-04-01
a CORNER in KEROSENE
IN Wsn Street Principles We're Rsesivsa N 4
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habit OF life, a horse trader by prac-
tice. His farm was mostly hay and
grazing land, we'll up on the slopes OF
! the mountain, and thence he descended
on the lower country, as did the rob
Der knight OF medieval Europe to
pray on the inhabitants of the val
leys. But 1chabod had been growing
old, and long familiarity had made
the people Tor forty miles in all d.
rections SO wary OF any dealing with
him that the. profits Of his horse
business in late years had been made
only By long excursions into sections
where he was not known. Business
had grown dull. He knew how to win
In bargain, but only in one line
horse-trading. His conscience was a
kind which is considered in some cir
cles fair average business conscience.
But his education was limited, special,
and now that trade in his line was
s practically ended for him, since long
journeys were wearisome to his old
bones, he had relapsed into a grouty
life in his farmhouse, where almost
no one visited him.
Ichabod's oldest son had followed
the ways OF north country boys some
twenty years ago, and gone off to
make his fortune, and. if fortune
be what men mostly consider
it, he has been successful. For
he was esteemed rich man in
New York, and had gathered great
deal OF money, was a respectable
member of society, and his name was
occasionally seen in the newspapers
in connection with financial opera
tions.
He came to the farm once in while
to see the old people and the others
of the family who lived at home. One
evening he was sitting by the fire, talk
ing with them. TO Ichabod Wall
street had always been q mystery be-
yond comprehension. His son James,
like many Wall street men, always
carried the street in his head
with him, and had small interest in
any other subjects of conversation.
He was telling his up country relatives
anecdotes Of the stock market. Ich-
abod had listened in silence, but at
length, at word which James used,
spoke out: flames, what do you mean
by a corner'?" Whereupon James ex-
planned, and as the old man had a
keen mind he readily grasped the idea.
Il don't see why you can't make a
corner IN any thing just as well as in
any kind of stock
''Of course you can. There are cor
ners made in provisions, and all sorts
OF things in themarket."
"Yes," said Ichabod, call you've
got to do is to get a. man to agree to
sell you something or forfeit money,
and then fix it 20 he can't possibly get
the stuff to deliver, and he'll have to
pay you the money. Yes, yes. You
buy up all there Is OF the stuff and
then you get your man to agree to
sell you lot, and when he finds out
that you have got all there is and he
can't get any, then you bleed him.
You see James, there's some people
that thinks if you sellem horse for
5000 that you know isn't worth $50,
you kind o do them out of their mon.
ey. But q corners not that sort of
thing"
'Not at all," said James.
But is it honest, Ichabod?" asked
his wife, Aunt Lyddy, as she was call.
ed. Aunt Lyddy had been all her life.
time puzzled to reconcile her hus-
bands dolngs with her own sense of
right and wrong. But her simple
brain was never very clear about any
thing.
Honest, mother? OF course it's
honest; it's business"
ayes, yes, Lyddy, it's business; you
don't know nothing about busines8.
I've told you so more times than
you're weeks old"
Down in the valley, two miles from
the farm, was the struggling village,
with it's one store, kept by Peleg How
land, almost as old q man as Ichabod
Bailey, but ono OF wholly different
mold and mind. Peleg had lived q
life OF unblemished honor. He had
made a fortune in his little country
store; to wit, almost $4,000; and
that was great riches for the neighbour
hood. Wlthal it was happy wealth
for Peleg, since no dollar of it had
come weighted with regret or curse,
those weights which make some mems
fortunes diabolic in character, and
give or ought to awful unhappiness to
some hours OF meditation or OF look
ing forward. And Peleg Rowland was
the central man OF that community,
very much respected and loved, always
applied to for advice, always helping
a neighbor with a loan to carry him
over tight time when fodder must be
bought or cattle perish, always scat
tering sticks Of candy and little knick-
knacks among the children, especially
about Christmas time. don't think
that community, stretching six or
eight miles in every direction from the
village, could get along without him.
His round face beams with the concen-
trated sunshine, the light OF kind looks
from every one outside, and the light
of kind heart from within, steady,
both lights, for nearly eighty years.
Peleg's daughter was lanes Bailey's
wife. But for good reasons she did
not come to see the old folks so often
as her husband, preterring especially
m winter, the comfort oil a city estab.
ishment to the rigors Of the mountain
climate. For her health was far from
rugged, Peleg said. Nevertheless she
loved her father we'll and he loved her
rs when she was q slender fair haired
child OF the valley, his only household
treasure. Perhaps, said some, Martha
shrank from talking with her father
about James wealth and ways of in
ereasing it. For all knew this, that
Martha had retained in all her life the
morality and ideas of Peleg, while